


A Halfling on the High Seas

by chem1calwarfare



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: High Fantasy, Other, Pirates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-30
Updated: 2019-03-30
Packaged: 2019-12-27 01:27:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18294047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chem1calwarfare/pseuds/chem1calwarfare
Summary: Brayden unwittingly joins a pirate crew.





	A Halfling on the High Seas

Brayden the halfling never thought he would resign himself to a legitimate job, but here he was. He found it less odd that a member of a race so devoted to tradition, order, and law would be a career criminal than the fact that said career criminal was trying to make a living on a simple merchant ship. He was hopeful, however, because trade vessels more often than not had something worth stealing. The only question lay in whether there was anything he could effectively hide on his diminutive body. At three feet tall, he could sneak into small places and hide with the greatest of ease, but making off with his ill-gotten gains was another matter entirely.

He was no mere child, however. He thought of himself as no different from a very short human; most people thought the same of halflings. Of course, there was the odd tavern owner who refused to sell to someone they thought was a child. Couldn't they clearly see he was past twenty years of age? Did they honestly think he could have grown that scruff ten years ago?

Speaking of taverns, the captain of the merchant vessel on which Brayden was seeking a job had apparently rented out an entire tavern to use as a meeting room for his new employees. Brayden wondered for a moment how the captain of a merchant ship, even a wealthy one, could afford to rent an entire tavern. It was certainly an opulent display, even if it were a generous one.

Ignoring the sense of something fishy happening, Brayden entered the tavern with his application in hand. He could read and write, which he thought might help his case--literacy was not particularly widespread in his land. The inked writing, a simple list of his skills and a declaration of honesty written on vellum, was starting to run a bit from his sweating palm.

Here goes everything, he thought.

\-----------------------------------

Inside the tavern was a diverse mixture of people; mostly humans, elves, and dwarves, with a couple of Brayden's fellow halflings in the crowd. These were the most common races in the land, so Brayden wasn't surprised to see that the new crew members were made of those four bloodlines.

He approached the central table, where a well-dressed human sat, surrounded by plainer folk. Brayden assumed that this man was the captain of the ship, due to his finer dress and somewhat imposing appearance. His hooked nose, small sharp teeth, and oddly-shaped eyes--somehow both round and pointed--marked him as having exotic blood. He was pale with straw-colored hair and icy blue eyes. Certainly a man who stands out in a crowd, Brayden thought.

"Good day to ya," was the greeting the man offered to Brayden.

"H-hello," was all Brayden could manage in response.

"Are you here for a job?" 

"Y-yes, sir." 

"Good. Is that your application? Why don't you give it here?" The man reached for Brayden's sheet of vellum and effortlessly slipped it from his hand. "I'm glad to see you can write. Few enough people can in this place."

Brayden said nothing, as a thanks would have been pompous, and an agreement even more so.

The man scanned Brayden's application, muttering to himself. "Let's see...you can swim, you can read...good...you can handle money... good, good...you've been on ships in the past...okay..." 

Brayden stood, frozen to his place on the floor, vaguely hearing conversation around him.

The man folded the sheet of vellum and slid it inside his waistcoat. "Well, you have potential, and there're few enough men 'round here who could make decent seamen. I'll let you give it a shot." He extended a hand for Brayden to shake. "The name's Steven."

"I'm Brayden." He took Steven's hand, and the captain shook it firmly.

\-----------------------------------

Work on Steven's ship turned out to be pretty much exactly what Brayden expected, which wasn't much to talk about. His literacy had landed him in the cargo hold of the ship, doing inventory on its goods. It was tedious work, but it was work, and it brought in enough gold to eat and pay rent. He had been at his job for a few months now and saw no pressing reason to quit.

Brayden walked about in the hold, counting items and marking down quantities in a small leather-bound book. Let's see, there were three casks of dwarven ale here, a human-sized bolt of silk there, barrels of onions, crates of dried pork, preserved mushrooms, spools of thread, simple clothing...nothing small enough to steal that was worth the trouble.

But what was this? Brayden saw a glint in the semidarkness. He knelt down, hidden by huge stacks of goods, to examine a potential treasure. It was a stray gold piece! Someone must have dropped it down here, or maybe it had slid out of a hole in an unfortunate soul's pocket. He earned a single gold piece every day for his work on the ship; his newfound treasure was enough to pay his rent for the day, or perhaps he could splurge and buy a few days' worth of high-quality food. He picked it up from the wooden floor and slipped it into his belt pouch.

Suddenly the hatch to the cargo hold opened, and light poured through. Another halfling climbed down the stepladder into the hold. It was Tyler, with whom Brayden had become acquainted. He was a darker-haired halfling with a thicker, stronger build; somewhat like a dwarf, but lacking the foot-long beard, instead sporting short scruff like Brayden.

Tyler ran over to Brayden, curving around barrels and crates with the supreme nimbleness common to halflings, and handed Brayden a shortsword. "The captain wants you up on the deck. Take this," was all he said before speeding back out of the hold.

Brayden was puzzled. What was going on? Why did the captain want him? And why did Tyler give him a sword?

\-----------------------------------

Stepping up onto the ship's deck, Brayden squinted against the sunlight and looked around him. The entire crew was gathered here, including the captain, and everyone was carrying a blade. The ship was cutting through the sea on a sharp curve, lining up with a schooner that was becoming closer and closer.

A couple of crew members extended the ship's plank, slamming it down onto the schooner's edge. The crew charged across the plank with blades in hand, and Brayden could do nothing but follow. The barebones crew of the schooner stood on the deck, panicked and useless to defend themselves. They were clearly not trained for combat.

Some of the more imposing crew members, mainly the tallest humans and the lone half-orc Steven employed, grabbed their victims' wrists and growled some threatening words to them as the remainder of the crew descended into the hold. They came back up carrying such varied items as fine clothing, jewelry, perfumes, weapons and tools, even a good amount of coin. Brayden watched with a mixture of confusion and awe as Steven gave each of the schooner's crew a single gold piece, then ordered his men to unhand them, and his crew returned to their ship.

As Brayden walked across the plank, he saw that the ship's flag had been replaced by a different one--a banner bearing a skull and crossbones next to a bolt of lightning.

\-----------------------------------

Brayden knocked gently on the door of the captain's quarters. "Enter," replied Steven's voice from beyond the wooden barrier.

The halfling opened and shut the door, handing Steven the inventory book. "Here's the inventory, sir. Including today's...gains."

The captain, seated at a simple desk, accepted the book. "Thank you, boy. I'm glad to see you finished your work. The last inventory man I hired took three days to do what you did." He stood up and stretched his arms. "We're near port now, so if you'd like to depart once we arrive, you may."

"I will, sir. I do have a question, though. Well, a couple of questions."

"Go ahead."

"Well, to start..." Brayden paused to gather his thoughts. "I had no idea you were a pirate."

"That's not a question, is it? But I'll give you an answer." The captain knelt down so he was at eye level with Brayden, perhaps to seem less imposing, or to show that he was deigning to talk to his inexperienced employee. "I can't simply go out in public and look for workers while openly being a pirate, can I? That's why I pretended to be a simple seafaring merchant. For good measure, I own the tavern where we first met." 

That explains quite a lot, Brayden thought.

"Sir, if I might ask, why become a pirate when you own a tavern? Doesn't that bring you enough money?"

"The tavern is merely a front, boy, a meeting place only open when absolutely necessary. A steady, dull career gets boring after a while." The captain regarded Brayden with some seriousness. "I was told you took that gold piece from the floor of the hold. I placed it there, before you joined my crew, as a test to see what you would do. You took it. I won't make you return it, but, please, explain your action to me."

Brayden's face began to grow hot, and his hands trembled a bit. He swallowed hard. "I-I'm a rogue as well, sir."

Steven looked at the halfling for a moment before allowing himself to smile. "A thief among my ranks, eh? Well, one word of warning. Don't steal from me. I'll pay you enough to live well. But you can keep that gold piece, like I promised." He stood up to his full human height and offered a handshake to Brayden. "Welcome to the crew."

Brayden shook the captain's hand firmly. "Yes, sir."


End file.
